BEEF CATTLE. 283 



To the objection of the absence of milk for grinding the grain, 

 the husking and shelling the corn, the bagging and drawing to 

 mill and back, the toll for grinding, cutting the hay, stalks for 

 straw, and other expenses, we place on the other side, full one- 

 third gain in the quantity of forage and grain expended, a much 

 shorter time in fitting the cattle for market, and the additional 

 quality of the manure made. Taken all together, we are satisfied 

 the balance sheet will tell in favor of the improved method. If 

 grain mills are now scarce in the feeding districts, a demand for 

 grinding will soon supply them, propelled either by water, or 

 steam, and like all other wants in these days of machinery, they 

 will be soon supplied. 



A word or two more in relation to manure, the economy of 

 which is often overlooked or neglected. It is valuable on almost 

 any land. "We care not how rich the land, in its virgin state, 

 may be. The manure will help it, on all uplands. We never 

 saw land too rich for growing Indian corn, or grass. Stable 

 manure, or manure made under sheds, is of better quality than 

 manure dropped from cattle promiscuously in the field. It can 

 be put where it is wanted. That which is dropped in the fields 

 by the cattle, must, of necessity, lie unevenly on the surface, and 

 be used where dropped, and the labor of hauling it from the 

 sheds, or stables, is amply compensated in the uniformity of its 

 distribution, over that which is accidentally deposited by the cat- 

 tle as they roam over the fields. Those who have practiced the 

 loose way of ordinary cultivation, may not so estimate the fact, 

 but a trial will soon settle it. Thousands of acres of lean 

 uplands may, every year, be seen giving only twenty to thirty 

 bushels of corn, or a ton, or less of hay to the acre, while a river 

 bottom, or a small enriched "home lot," will give twice, or thrice, 

 the quantity of both; and the same lean uplands, by the applica- 

 tion of those so saved manures, may be made to yield just as 

 well, from the advantages of the improved modes of feeding. 



